Henry, what were you thinking?

Pocono Township Supervisor Henry Bengel just became the municipality's director of public works, replacing Supervisor Harold Werkheiser after months of infighting over Werkheiser's job performance.

The problem is Bengel voted himself into the job.

Last year I criticized Werkheiser when he voted for his brother to become township police chief. I called it a conflict of interest.

So was Bengel's latest move.

Werkheiser and Bengel, along with Frank Hess, make up the township's Board of Supervisors. Bengel and Hess voted for Bengel's job appointment. Werkheiser voted against it.

Bengel shouldn't have voted at all. He should have abstained.

Bengel said he didn't consider it a conflict of interest.

"It's been done before," he told me Tuesday. "The (state) Ethics Committee has never been involved in this type of decision-making in the appointment of a position."

That may be true, but sometimes we must go beyond the letter of the law and honor its spirit.

A conflict exists when a voting member stands to benefit from the outcome. That was exactly the case here, something I believe every Pocono Township resident knows in their gut.

I've known Henry for years. He was a co-worker and became a confidant. He's a decent man who ran for supervisor for all the right reasons — to make life in his township better. And I think he is still that man.

I warned you Henry, before you ran, after you were elected and after you were seated: Never forget the reasons you ran in the first place. They were genuine and altruistic.

You didn't advertise the public works job. Other potential candidates never had the chance to compete for it. And the township was robbed of the opportunity to choose the most qualified candidate.

Please don't become what you ran against. Step outside yourself. See the world through your constituents' eyes.

Bengel and Hess felt Werkheiser needed to be replaced. When former Supervisor and Township Manager Jane Cilurso decided to retire, Hess offered his services — pro bono — in lieu of hiring an expensive replacement.

Henry, I wished you had done the same until a suitable replacement was found.

Actions like voting yourself into a job stir anger, conflict and mistrust, just as it did in Middle Smithfield Township. They created the municipal version of a reality show.

Don't let the authority corrupt you. Don't become institutionalized by the power of your position. And don't let it affect your judgment or change who you are.

I don't think it has. But I do think you've committed a frightful faux pas.